The present invention relates to a device for guiding a rope or line in a marine environment, and more particularly to an anchor or pot puller.
The commercial fishing industry employs crab pots of various designs and material to capture live crabs from the floor of the ocean, bay, or inlet, for example. Typically, a rope (or line or cord) extends from the crab pot to a marker buoy. The marker buoy may bob on the surface of the water, or may be submersed and include a release mechanism that will release the buoy to the surface under particular conditions, such as a timed release or a radio-frequency release operated by a fisherman.
Crab pots rest on the ocean floor, enticing live crabs inside using bait. Once one or several crabs enter the pot, they are unable to escape. Fishermen leave unattended several crab pots on the ocean floor. Periodically, the fishing vessel returns to the buoy attached to the corresponding crab pot and a fisherman connects the line extending from the pot to a pulling device, such as a hand winch or motorized winch, via a pulley block mounted on the vessel; thus affecting retrieval of the pot from the ocean floor. Because one end of the rope affixes to the crab pot, and the second end attaches to a ring for such purposes on the buoy, the fisherman typically untied the knot at the second end, removing the buoy, and attached the second end to the pulling device.
To expedite and otherwise increase efficiency of this operation an assist device, called a pot-puller or pot-hauler, attaches to a buoy and the rope feeds through the pot-puller. The pot-puller includes a mounting means for attaching to the buoy. Typically, the mounting means consists of an eyelet wherethrough a short line, quick-link, or bolt-and-nut assembly passes and links the pot-puller to the ring on the buoy. The pot-puller includes a locking mechanism to retain the rope in a fixed position, preventing unintentional slippage and loss of the crab pot. Thus, the rope extending to the crab pot firmly affixes to the buoy and frees the second end to be quickly attached to the pulling device on the fishing vessel as needed.
The typical, prior-art pot-puller consists of a material suitable for the corrosive marine environment. Common materials include cast or machined aluminum, brass, or stainless steel. The prior-art pot-pullers typically consist of a unitary body and a locking mechanism. The unitary body includes a mounting means, such as an eyelet, for attaching the pot-puller to a buoy. Generally, pot-pullers of the prior-art are formed from a unitary piece in a cylindrical configuration with a vertically aligned, central through-hole sized to pass the crab-pot rope. The locking-mechanism typically consist of an inclined slot wherethrough a float-pin rests. A properly inserted crab-pot rope will easily slide in one direction as the float-pin moves in a corresponding direction within the confines of the inclined slot. But, an attempt to pull the rope in the opposite direction the float-pin will resist against the rope, pinching the rope between the pin and the interior wall of the unitary body. This design enables a crab-pot to be retrieved quickly from the ocean floor and prevents the rope from accidentally releasing from the buoy when unattended.
The prior-art crab pot-puller presents two significant obstacles to the fishing industry. First, the through-hole design requires feeding the crab-pot rope through the two open ends, which are the only openings suitably sized to pass a rope. This necessitates either hauling up the crab-pot, detaching the line from the pot and then running the first rope end through the pot-puller or running the rope all the way out to get to the second end of the rope. This makes repair or retrofitting awkward and costly. Second, the locking mechanism requires two-handed manipulation to play-out the crab rope. This technique is awkward and cumbersome, as it is not always possible to employ both hands as the vessel rolls and pitches with the ocean's swell.